Lu Fuki & Divine Providence (Local event October 2017)

On Saturday night, local jazz group Lu Fuki and Divine Providence performed at The Bottom Line coffee house, located on Third Street in Detroit, just off of the Wayne State campus. According to the event’s Facebook page, Lu Fuki and Divine Providence are “a collective of jazz musicians formed by bandleader Lu Fuki, who felt the need to connect hearts through sound in order to promote solidarity, freedom, and social action.”

            The group features seven members: a drummer, keyboardist, bassist, saxophonist, two electric guitarists, and a percussionist who also plays the violin. People gathered and drank coffee and tea in the venue while the band played about five songs from 9:30 to 10:45 P.M. When describing the group’s music, percussionist & violinist Aaron McCoy Jacobs said “We do a combination of classical, Indian, and jazz, and then I throw in some Middle Eastern and African, so we have four continents of music all coming together.”       

The concept that influences the group and brought them together is spirituality. “I met him [Lu Fuki] at a meditation thing we were doing in Flint,” said Jacobs. “I would go to his apartment every other day and we’d come up with random shit, just violin and guitar, and the neighbors would knock on the door and tell us not to stop.”

            The two guitarists in the group, Fuki and his wife Tazeen Ayub, draw influence from the practice of Sufism, often called Islamic Mysticism, says the Facebook page. According to patheos.com, Sufism is a Muslim movement whose followers seek to find divine truth and love through direct encounters with God. “Because music doesn’t have a physical form, it is the most divine and the most spiritual form of art.” Ayub, the lead vocalist, said between songs. “For us, that’s why we’re all musicians, it’s coming straight from the soul and its a way to connect hearts.”